Kubica satisfied after busy day of tyre testing
The Renault Formula One Team began working with Pirelli tyres for the first time today as Robert Kubica got back behind the wheel of the R30 in Abu Dhabi. The young Pole was satisfied with the start of the relationship with Pirelli and looks forward to another busy day tomorrow.
Robert Kubica: “It’s always interesting to test new tyres and today was our first chance to try the new Pirellis and work with the new tyre engineers. We all know how important the tyres are for the behaviour of the car and so we concentrated on evaluating both compounds and understanding as much as we could about the tyre characteristics. Although we didn’t do a massive number of laps, we have still learned a few things and it feels good to have begun our relationship with Pirelli. Because we stopped early, we have saved some of the tyres for tomorrow, so it will be a busy day as we continue learning.”
Technical Debrief with Alan Permane, Chief Engineer: “We had our first taste of Pirelli tyres today and were able to run both the medium and soft compounds. The morning went well and Robert was reasonably happy with the car balance, although we made a few changes during the day to improve it. Our initial impression of the tyres has been positive: they were working well with good grip and no warm-up issues. Unfortunately we had to stop early because we had a mechanical issue with the car and we preferred to save the tyres for tomorrow when we’ve rectified the problem.”
